Book: This is How a Robin Drinks (an invitation, and recap of Launch)

I wrote my first book in Kindergarten. It was about an ant:

This is How a Robin Drinks: Essays on Urban Nature is my second book, and it is finally real.

The advance praise is gobsmackingly wonderful, so I’ve made a page for what Margaret Renkl, Doug Tallamy, David George Haskell, Georgeann Eubanks, Erika Howsare, Michael Sims, and The Humane Gardener, Nancy Lawson took the trouble to say, along with some reviews so far. Here’s that page: link.
One review made me glad I read it alone in the kitchen, so I could clutch the countertop and have a proper, joyful, and very ugly cry.

Photos of the *Book Launch* at Parnassus Books with Margaret Renkl are below, but first, a request:

INVITATION to spread the word

For various, boring reasons, there is no tour for “This is How a Robin Drinks.”
Word of mouth is what’s going to help this book find its readers: people who read nature books, and people who don’t.
People who garden and people who don’t.
People who know their ash from a hole in the ground, or don’t.
People who want to get lost in an almanac of 52 true stories about the world “under our feet, over our heads, and beside us; the very places we need to know first.”

If you would like to help me spread the word, here are a few ways:

TELL: a friend, co-worker, acquaintance, likely-looking stranger.

BUY (book or ebook)
–Your local bookshop (find it at Bookshop.org)
–Parnassus Books or The Bookshop (both Nashville)
–Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org at large (link).
–The publisher, Trinity University Press, with a 25%-off code RD25 before 11/1/24 (plus shipping) (link)

REVIEW: Please rate and review the book on Amazon—even if your copy came from an indie shop—and Goodreads, or BookBub, if you do those. Reviews make a big difference. 

SHARE on Social Media:
–Follow me on Instagram (@Jo_Brichetto), Facebook (link) for 100% nature daily posts.
–Post a photo of your book on social media and tag me. 
–Share or Repost my Instagram or Facebook pics about the book.

LIBRARY: Ask your library to purchase a copy. (Nashville’s got some, and there’s a wait list!)

BOOK CLUB: Suggest it to clubs that want nonfiction, memoir, books by women, books on nature or gardening, regional interest, Rx / action for eco-grief.

SUBSCRIBE: to SidewalkNature.com for my monthly email of seasonal, nature updates (“everyday wonders in everyday habitat loss”).

ATTEND:
Saturday, Oct. 26th, 3pm, I’ll be at the Southern Festival of Books, in the TN State Museum’s Duck Room, on a panel with fellow nature-writer Leigh Ann Henion (Night Magic). Book signing at 4pm.

But, 3 days before that, on Oct. 23rd, 6pm at The Bookshop in E. Nashville, I’m one of five authors at the fundraiser WRITERS + WINE: a pre-Southern Festival of Books literary mingle.
I’ll be the one with cicada earrings and a selzter!
(Link for tickets, or click the image below)

Thank you, friends. 

I’ve worked hard on this book, and am thrilled to finally get to share with you.
If you try it, I hope you love it. 
If you don’t love it, give it to someone who might!

---

The LAUNCH!

The official launch was at Parnassus Books, in conversation with Margaret Renkl who, thankfully, is so good at conversation, she could cover for me until I dared join in. I am so grateful for this celebratory send-off. All I had to do was perch on a stool, read aloud for a total of 5 minutes, answer questions, and present Margaret with a surprise token of appreciation I will describe below.

But first, right before our names got called, as Margaret and I stood hidden in the “wings”—the Middle Grade books where a chalkboard banner said: “Your Next Chapter Starts Here,” and where my heart made my new shirt visibly heave with each beat—she looked at me and promised, with a reassuring grin, “This is going to be fun.” 
And it was. 
Terrifying, but fun.

Thank you to everyone who wanted to be at the launch, and everyone who was.
I am so grateful for your support!

Now, about the token:
I sometimes make earrings from seasonal detritus, like cicada husks, hemlock cones, sweetgum capsules. I wear them at outreach events. And on Book Launch Day, super nervous in anticipation, I decided to make something for Margaret … something with tree fruit, because every morning the sidewalks are covered with all kinds of tree-fruit Signs of the Season.
But which kind would be best? Hackberry? Shumard oak? Willow oak, Shingle? The seeds of September elm were too delicate, the stinkbombs of ginkgo too stinky. And every pecan hull had been emptied by larvae or squirrels. 

I chose a tree fruit see-able to 150 people at a book launch. Osage orange. Too unwieldy for earrings, though a girl can dream. This particular fruit weighed about 15 ounces—before the hot glue, the threaded eye bolt, and the pieced length of ball-chain made by scrounging every unused keychain in the junk drawer.

A poor payment for priceless support, but at least it was seasonal, native, and chock full of good intentions.

---

In gratitude,
Jo

---

More
SidewalkNature:

-Follow me on Instagram or Facebook, where my posts are 100% nature.
-Subscribe to Sidewalk Nature to get an email when I update. I never share your info.

SUBSCRIBE

-General comment or question? Click Contact.
-Corrections, suggestions, new friends always welcome.

---

Bio:
Joanna Brichetto is a naturalist and writer in Nashville. Her book, This is How a Robin Drinks: Essays on Urban Nature, is an almanac of 52 true stories about the world “under our feet, over our heads, and beside us; the very places we need to know first.” As “Nashville’s Sidewalk Naturalist,” Jo hopes to meet all her plant and animal neighbors, especially the ones able to eke out a living in our most inhospitable places. She’s at work on her second book, “The Hackberry Appreciation Society,” and you can find her at SidewalkNature.com (“Everyday wonders in everyday habitat loss”) and on Instagram @Jo_Brichetto.